COVID was a clear warning that the old movie model was dying.

When the virus hit, Warner saw that a massive movie backlog was piling up: all the studios were releasing packed slates for 2021. They knew that their slate was rather weak, and if they tried to wedge their releases into that crowded scrum with cinema-exclusives, they would be embarrassed. They?decided to release its entire 2021 slate simultaneously in theaters and on their HBO streamer.

There was pressure from the mother ship. ATT is a phone company, but it’s also the land of misfit toys. The firm also has or has had AOL the obsolete browser, Time the obsolete magazine, Warner the obsolete record company, HBO and Turner the obsolete cable companies, the DC comic book franchise they can’t get to work, and New Line which is out of hobbits. HBO lost half its 18-49 audience when they lost Thrones. And then COVID, which essentially guaranteed big losses no matter what they did.

So Warner dropped their simultaneous-release bombshell to help the streamer, and Old Hollywood howled.

A big-name agent bellowed that Disney’s old-school moves, recycling all their old stuff, will put HBOMAX and Netflix in their places; he didn’t notice that most of the Disney effort is in their own streaming service, not big features. Disney is hedging their bets; like Warner they want their streamer to succeed.

Christopher Nolan slammed Warner even though Warner spent a ton on unknown IP so they could release another big incomprehensible Nolan film, Tenet, the way Nolan wanted it. It probably lost money because it cost close to $400 million. Nolan flounced his way out of Warners and into Universal for his next historical drama.

Judd Apatow bellowed that Warner should have consulted with the dozens of big-name artists before changing the releases. As though it wasn’t going to leak. And how many people do you call? What if you’re the executive producer who wasn’t considered big enough to get a call?

Jenkins still hates simultaneous release; she doesn’t want to work with streamers for film, only TV. Jenkins says actors will go to a studio who does things the old way, but that option might not exist in two years, and there are too few big actors who could force such action; she says this despite her massive payout from Warner. Later she scoffed at the idea that studios would give up billion-dollar movies just to support their streaming services, but really it’s not up to the studios, it’s up to the audiences: if they don’t like the theater they will wait until a movie comes to their home, which it always does.

Aaron Sorkin says fans will demand the communal experience and actors could form their own company, because he doesn’t know how movie money works at the front end or the back end.

Denis Villeneuve insists he will require by contract that his films first be released exclusively in theaters. We need big screen movies, communal experience, it’s our culture! It was our culture, past tense. Legendary, which financed a lot of Villeneuve’s Dune, was not happy with the stream plan, and Warner went back and forth on backing down and putting Dune in the theater. Their break-even is probably around $250 million – Wonder Woman 1984 only did 163 globally. Legendary was also thinking about moving the new Godzilla movie from Warner to Netflix but stuck with Warner and did okay.

Soderbergh defended Warner’s decision, stating that movies have a shelf life and need to get out. Putting your slate into a theatrical market that isn’t even running at 100 percent is wasting money. He said the decision-making could have been communicated better, but noted that as soon as you find the first angry partner, you’ve got a leak anyway.

George Clooney said that Warner’s handling of the issue was wobbly and noted that people want the cinema for all sorts of movies, but noted that Dune was not going to break even regardless.

The Warner people said they could have warned the big players earlier, but the outcome wouldn’t have changed, and the customer had to be foremost in their minds because they have the power.

When Warner left ATT and linked up with Discovery, the new bosses said they would be focusing on relationships with talent, and they left the author of the Warner 2021 all-streaming plan out of restructuring talks, a likely scapegoat to appease the artists.

Warner released Wonder Woman 1984 on stream because the virus was keeping the audience out of the cinemas and the HBOMAX streamer needed the help. Partly due to the virus, and partly due to the poor quality which almost got it a Rotten score on Tomatoes, it didn’t open very strongly in cinemas and was particularly weak in China; it did not break even in theaters. But, it opened huge on the streamer.

Scarlett Johannson sued Disney for reducing her payout by releasing Black Widow simultaneously in theaters and on stream, rather than waiting until theater traffic had bounced back and they could begin the run in theaters only, as her contract stipulated. Disney not only screwed her, they screwed the theaters too. Disney struck back when she sued, cut off all ties with her. Warner began courting Johansson to jump over to DC; Disney made nice and settled.

Paramount didn’t do a normal theatrical release for a year.

Sony is talking tough, claiming they get calls from directors and actors who are angry at Warner, promising to prioritize the theater, while mumbling that if theatrical releases underperform they will shorten release windows. Sony said they have no simultaneous release. The conglomerate has been shifting emphasis away from features and toward television for years;?Sony has Jumanji, half of Spiderman, and…the second remake of Bewitched. Having no streamer of their own, they have a plan which steers their films to Netflix, Disney and Hulu through 2026.

175 movies were released between September 2020 and April 2021, 533 the year before.

Four firms that tangled with the status quo: Disney fought with the actors, Universal haggled over windows, Warner rejected releasing in cinemas at all, Netflix did want to do movies at all. Cinemas and artists howled; but audiences will follow good content.

Jack is a writer with 29 feature screenplays and a series completed, almost all of them with female leads, three under option. Check them out on this site and let’s get one filmed! https://threewibbes.wordpress.com/